Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Supermodel Naomi 'to mop floors'

British supermodel Naomi Campbell has been sentenced to five days community service by a court in New York. Campbell has been ordered to clean floors in a municipal warehouse as punishment for throwing a mobile phone at her housekeeper. She pleaded guilty to reckless assault in a plea bargain with prosecutors at Manhattan Criminal Court last month. As well as community service, the 36-year-old was also ordered to attend an anger management course.

Naomi Campbell may be one of the most famous women in the world but she is about to get a taste of how the other half live, working as a cleaner. It has emerged her punishment will involve cleaning the floors of a sanitation building, starting later this month. Miss Campbell has apologised for assaulting her maid - the fourth such complaint against her - and agreed to take anger management classes. Her spokesman said she was ready to report and complete her community service no matter what or where it was.

Indonesia jet explodes on landing

An Indonesian jet has crashed and burst into flames on landing at Yogyakarta airport in Java, killing 22 people. The state-owned Garuda airline, which operated the Boeing 737-400, confirmed that 118 people had survived. Indonesia's president immediately announced an investigation into the crash in Yogyakarta, 440km (270 miles) south-east of Jakarta. Indonesia's safety record has been in the spotlight recently after a series of accidents, correspondents say.

'Too fast'

The crash happened at about 0700 local time (0000 GMT). Survivors say a large number of passengers escaped through emergency doors before the plane burst into flames. The jet reportedly started shaking violently before landing. The operations chief at Yogyakarta airport said the front wheel of the plane was on fire as it landed, causing it to veer off the runway and hit a boundary fence. He said an engine had then broken away from the plane and the fuselage burst into flames. The aircraft came to rest in the middle of a rice field.

First Air Marshal Benyamin Dandel, air force commander at Yogyakarta, said: "The plane was too fast or over-speeding, so it ran about 300 metres off the runway." Some survivors said the fire started near the front the plane and spread quickly down the fuselage. One survivor, Din Syamsudin, who is the chairman of Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organisation, Muhammadiyah, told Reuters: "Some passengers wanted to get their hand luggage. I cried to them, 'get out, get out'.

"The plane was full of smoke. I just jumped from two metres and landed in a rice field." A number of survivors are being treated in hospital for severe injuries or burns. The blaze took two hours to put out and gutted the jet.